Cowboys owner Jerry Jones said Monday night he is “not anticipating any more coaching changes” after being asked whether offensive coordinator Scott Linehan would retain his job.
The Cowboys dismissed offensive line coach Paul Alexander last week.
Linehan will continue as the team’s play caller this week, too, despite the Cowboys ranking 27th in total yards, 29th in passing yards and 26th in points.
For the third time this season, Jason Garrett publicly defended his offensive coordinator. However, this time Garrett was not nearly as effusive in his praise of Linehan and of his faith in Linehan.
“Right now, Scott Linehan is going to call the plays on offense,” Garrett said Tuesday.
It is unknown exactly what Garrett meant by “right now,” but Linehan’s leeway appears to shrink by the loss.
Garrett said he is involved in suggesting whether the Cowboys call a run or a pass, but Linehan selects the play.
“I think situationally we always talk about that,” Garrett said. “Certainly at different points, you say ‘Hey, let’s run it here’ or ‘Hey we can still throw it here.’ You certainly try to defer to Scott in terms of what the specific play call is, but a lot of it is stuff we’ve talked about all week long, so hopefully we’re all on the same page as an offensive staff. We’ll talk between series if there’s something specific that I want, but for the most part he and the offensive staff are handling that.”
Garrett called the plays in 2011 and 2012, his first two full seasons as head coach, before turning it over to Bill Callahan. Linehan has served as the team’s play-caller since he was hired in 2014.